Here we are, winding down the trip to Orange Beach, Alabama. Make sure you read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Thursday morning started with breakfast. Earlier in the week, when we went to the Mexican Restaurant, I saw a place to get Beignets. Now, I know that’s more of a signature New Orleans item, but still, I wanted to try them. I mentioned it to hubby and he was all for it. So off to Café Beignet, we went. Again, we left my MIL and little one to get dressed at the hotel. Note: They never got dressed when we’d go off to get breakfast.
Back in 2009 a group of friends and I decided to start what we called Dinner Club. I have mentioned this a few times I know. It was a lot of fun. At that time we had a few “rules,”
A non-chain restaurant
Local – within about an hours drive or so
The dress was business casual or dressier
That was about it. Business casual consisted of the ladies in dresses of some sort and the guys in khakis and at least a polo or button-down. We had a few dinners where the guys wore suits. This is why my husband owns a suit. Although he never wore it to a dinner club.
Before you start, be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2.
We had a friend tell us about an Alligator zoo we needed to take the little one to. It was about a 20-minute drive outside out of Orange Beach, but totally worth the drive. I know I keep saying that, but it truly is.
We woke up early and drove out to Summerdale to go to Alligator Alley. We almost missed the driveway. Our directions said, turn left here and we passed the entrance because it blended in with the trees. When you bought tickets to get in, they had different size cups of feed you could buy to feed the alligators. Truthfully, it looked like horse poop. I’m just saying it like it is. haha.
Today I have even more photos for you… as in around 78 or so. I’m sorry. Alabama was so awesome and it was totally worth the trip. I’d recommend it to anyone for a relaxing time. If you haven’t read Orange Beach Part 1, I would. I’ll try not to let this post drag on, but we’ll see what happens. I’m sorry if it does. And if nothing else, enjoy the photos!!
When hubby was in Mobile the few weeks before, they informed him that this is one of the wettest cities in the country. It gets moisture off the Gulf, etc. I’m pretty sure it rained almost every day we were down here. Never for very long and really only enough to make it humid.
Waking up every morning to the sound of thunder was beautiful. It was also fun to see the storms move across the sky. We were greeted with a rainbow Monday morning. It was beautiful. And of course, you know pictures don’t do rainbows justice, unfortunately. It always takes tweaking in photoshop to get those vibrant rainbows caught on film (or digital…).
The other fun thing to watch was all of the boats zooming out of the rainstorms. Case in point here. Every morning. (more…)
I really want to be like those bloggers who can do multiple weeks in one post, but I just can’t. That’s just not my style. There are 51 photos in this post. People who do those week+ long posts usually have 25 total photos. It’s just not my style.
Now 2, this was about our vacation this last summer in August 2019. Yes, you read that right. I’m just now getting to it. I’m sitting here on a cold snowy day in January wishing I was in Alabama in summer enjoying our vacation. So without further ado, I bring you Orange Beach, Alabama
Headed to Orange Beach
From our house, there are two ways to head to Alabama. You can go through Arkansas into Mississippi, across to Alabama. Otherwise, you drive clear across Missouri to Memphis, then down. We chose to head through Arkansas. I did some research and it was supposed to be the “faster” route. Because we were headed through Arkansas, Jared told us to meet him in Rogers for lunch at a place called Hapa’s Hawaiian Bar & Grill.
Now here is where I tell you that once I got just outside of Rogers it started POURING rain. So bad at one point I really could hardly see anything in front of me. I was driving this stretch. It was awful. Then our GPS took us to the wrong place. We were only 5 miles to the west of where we were supposed to be but traffic was so horrid that it took us 30-45 minutes for that 5 miles. By the time we got there, I was done.
What do you do when you are in San Antonio but want to go to the beach? You drive to the closest one. After doing a little bit of research, the Corpus Christi area seemed like the best option. It was all interstate and it was about an hour and a half to two-hour drive.
When we started planning our trip to San Antonio we asked the girls what they wanted to do while we were on vacation. The only thing the little one said was the beach. Well if you haven’t noticed, San Antonio is still kind of in the upper part of Texas. Now, I use the “upper part” loosely because Texas is huge and in comparison, it really isn’t, but what I mean is, San Antonio is more inland bound.
We planned on Friday of our trip to be our beach day. That still gave us a day to mill around San Antonio. Plus we weren’t driving 4 hours (2 hours one way) and then home 11 hours the next. We had that cushion day in there to recoup from the beach.
Hubby, being the researcher he is, really didn’t research where we were going to go once we got to Corpus Christi. We just decided to wing it. As we pulled into the area, we found North Beach. We did a slight bit of research on the road and decided that might not be a bad place to check out, so that’s where we landed. We stopped along the way to get some sand buckets and shovels and plastic cups… who doesn’t use plastic cups to play in the sand? It was all I could find honestly. And we were ready for a day at the beach. (more…)
Every year, I really feel like one of the true starts to the Christmas season is the trip to Ft. Worth. Since the hubs and I have been together, we’ve been able to attend Fort Worth and the NCHA Futurity every year. This year was no different.
Thursday night we headed out after everyone got off work. We made it as far as Dennison, TX, before calling it a night. The next morning, we woke up and off to Fort Worth we headed. Before we left the hotel though, we grabbed breakfast. Abug did her own hair for Breakfast. Who is to argue with a 4-year-old?
Then we were off. As we got closer to Ft. Worth, we dealt with more rain. Usually, we have to rent a vehicle to haul all of us. This year we had a white Ford Expedition. On the lot, they had a Chevy Suburban, but we thought we’d like the Ford better. After getting home, we weren’t sure if we wouldn’t have liked the Suburban better? Possibly more cargo room… but I guess one will never know. (more…)
One of our favorite things to do when we go out of town is to eat at restaurants we don’t have at home. We never say we can’t do chain restaurants although if I have to say, we do prefer to eat at restaurants that aren’t chain restaurants. Not always an option though. So over the Thanksgiving weekend, we wound up eating in Tulsa 3 times. Here are a few of our favorite restaurants we eat at when in Tulsa.
My aunt went to Med School. Now, here’s where I tell you I was young when she did that so I’m not sure if she went to Stillwater campus or a Tulsa Campus but I know she did her residency in Tulsa. This was a restaurant she found and introduced us to many moons ago.
It was always a restaurant we could remember was on Peoria but never could quite remember the cross street or anything. Finally one day I made it a point to remember 35th street. That’s very helpful!
Their Olé Queso is the reason to come here. It’s a creamy queso that’s so awesome! Hubby didn’t order that for us this time though because we were afraid the little one wouldn’t eat it. Turns out she wouldn’t eat the yellow queso either. Figures. It’s a blend of rich & creamy white cheddar, chihuahua, jack, Oaxaca cheeses.
I went with a Pork Relleno. I just must state here I love Chile Relleno’s. Add the pork to it and YUM! It was served with rice, black beans, and a sweet corn cake. Highly recommend. That’s all.
Wow, it’s been quite a while since we actually went to Kansas City, but still, it’s worth mentioning.
Last month we made a weekend trip, actually just an overnight trip to Kansas City. The goal was to go to the Farmer’s Market and get Jalapeños. I know that sounds funny, but hubby makes these things called candied jalapeños and the best place to get bulk jalapeños at a decent price is the City Market in Kansas City. Gosh, I love that place. The first time we went, I wound up buying 20 pounds of jalapeños. This time we only bought 15 pounds. haha. You still get just as many weird looks buying 5 pounds fewer jalapeños.
But, because we went, we decided to make it a weekend trip. This summer’s goal has been to Have Fun!
Where We Stayed
4600 Summit St. Kansas City, MO
We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Kansas City Country Club Plaza. (more…)
I sometimes think different people have different reasons to travel. In fact, I don’t think, I know. One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to try local cuisine. Sure there are chain restaurants you find everywhere, but I like to stick to the local favorites. I don’t always manage that. And truthfully, there are those “chain” restaurants that we don’t have close to home, so I’ll let them slide into the rada
The concierge at the hotel is a great person to ask where the locals eat. What’s their favorite restaurant? Best thing on the menu, etc. So that first night, that’s just what we did. (more…)